The invention pertains to methods and apparatus for the manufacture of metal components requiring chip removal machining.
Tools for chip removing machining, such as milling tools, drilling tools, turning tools and the like commonly include miscellaneous components which are of a limited size in relation to the tool in its entirety and which must be machined to high accuracy. Examples of such components are cassettes and wedges for milling tools, shims for drilling and turning tools, clamps and chip breakers for milling tools, etc. Critical surfaces on such components often require tolerances within the range of 0.005-0.02 mm. The same fine tolerances are also required for holes in the components and for serrations, thereon. Such components are usually made of steel, which requires hardening.
Manufacturing methods, known hitherto, require individual handling of metal blanks, which are slightly larger than the components will be after all machining has been completed. Usually, the blanks are cast in steel, and then the individual blanks are machined in a series of different operations. In the case of, for instance, cassettes for milling tools, seats are milled for cutting inserts at a certain machining station, while grinding of external surfaces takes the milling of an external surface, and holes may be drilled and possibly screw-threaded.
Between these stations, the individual blanks have to be handled separately since they have to be released from the fixture in question after a first machining operation and then remounted in another fixture for the next machining operation. In case one and the same blank is to be submitted to many machining operations, the handling as a whole will be time-consuming and expensive. Furthermore, the individual handling at and between different machining stations has the aggravating disadvantage that the dimensional accuracy may suffer. Thus, if all blanks are not positioned and fixed in the same way, there is a risk that individual components get unacceptable tolerance deviations. It should also be mentioned that the requisite hardening of the blanks/components has to be carried out individually.
The present invention aims at obviating the above-mentioned disadvantages of the previously applied manufacturing method and, in a first aspect, at providing an improved method for the manufacture of components which require chip removing machining. A primary object of the invention is to provide a manufacturing method which permits an accurate machining of the requisite metal blanks without the need to move, between different machining stations and fixtures, respectively, a plurality of components which in all essentials could instead be machined to completion at one machining station. An object is also to provide a manufacturing method, which permits an efficient and thereby inexpensive production.
According to the invention, at least the primary object is obtained by a method of manufacturing metal components, comprising the step of:
A) face-machining opposite sides of each of a plurality of ring-shaped metal blanks;
B) securing the face-machined blanks in axially adjacent relationship along an axis, whereby the blanks are immovable relative to one another; and
C) performing a plurality of different chip-removing machining operations on each blank for reshaping the blanks, one of the machining operations comprising making axial cuts through the blanks in a direction parallel to the axis to separate each blank into a number of components distributed around the axis.
Another aspect of the invention involves an apparatus for machining metal components. The apparatus includes an arbor which defines an axis. The arbor has a stop surface at one axial end thereof and a clamp at an opposite axial end thereof. A set of ring-shaped metal blanks is clamped on the arbor between the stop surface and the clamp so as to be immovable relative to one another. A plurality of machining tools is provided for performing a plurality of different chip-removing machining operations on each blank for reshaping the blanks. One of the machining tools is arranged for making axial cuts through the blanks in a direction parallel to the axis for separating each blank into a number of components distributed around the axis.